Anime Creation Process

[Tushae]

Hi :D
I'm interested in knowing exactly what goes into making an episode of anime. Ive done a little research but i'm not very good at it so i haven't got anything useful yet.

So far i think what happens is...

* the animation frames are drawn,
* then inked
* put onto the computer
* colored
* and the put into the episode.

of course i could be completely wrong.

id also like to know what kinda software the studios use.
if anyone knows of any articles on it , or knows first hand it'll be a big help.
as i'd like to have a go at some of the techniques.
:) Thanks

[ZeroRyoko1974]

There is an article from I think it was Gonzo that talked about the process from the planning and such on. Also there is a video that tokyopop puts out thats about one guy who put his own animated movie together by himself on his computer.

[master terrence]

is each character frame drawn seperately (I nkow that backround scenery frames are a different story)

[Dessa]

**grins**

First off, it depends completely on the style of the animation. The process changes depending on if you're doing traditional cel animation or if you're doing digital animation. It also changes depending on if you're doing pose-to-pose or straight ahead animation. For the purposes of this, we'll assume that it's pose-to-pose, digital animation.

1) Script is written
2) Storyboards are made
3) Key animation frames are decided
4) Key frames are drawn (note that in each frame, each character will be animated on a separate level, as will the background. In addition, any object which will move or the characters will interact with has to be done on a separate level as well*)
5) In-between frames are drawn (note applies from #4)*
6) All frames are scanned into the computer.
7) Frames are digitally cleaned up (to remove any extra lines)
8) Frames are digitally colored
9) Frames are transfered into a program which will animate them

If this were a traditional cel animation, after step 5 would have come
6) "Good" frame lines are traced onto acitate ("good" meaning the lines meant for outlines, not extra lines, and acitate is the plastic cel material)
7) From the smallest detail to the largest, the cels are painted (this is because you paint the back side, so the larger details can actually paint over the smaller ones, because they've already been laid down)
8) Any exess paint is cleaned off of the cel
9) The cels are photographed by a special machine onto film (or into the computer, and back to step 9 from before)

Of course, that's not even taking into consideration voice work and background music and such.

Oh, and as for my *s...
1) Ever notice how if there's an object in the background that a character will eventually pick up and/or interact with, it's different colors from the background? That's because it's on a different layer.
2) The order of the in-betweens varies depending on if inbetweens are done in-house, or shipped overseas (many productions, American and Japanese, ship their inbetweens overseas, which is why you get so many Korean names and studios in the credits).

[Tushae]

There is an article from I think it was Gonzo that talked about the process from the planning and such on. Also there is a video that tokyopop puts out thats about one guy who put his own animated movie together by himself on his computer.

cool where can i find these articles?

[John]

I thought it was Production IG that hosted a series of articles on how anime is made, but right now all I can find on their homepage is this series of articles (http://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/23_/s08_/000391.html) on how the digital modeling for IGPX was created.

[ZeroRyoko1974]

Might have been IG, I can't recall specefically, it was a few months back.